Costa Rica Could Lose Betting Business
According to media reports in the Caribbean, the Costa Rican government could be looking at ways to tax online betting and casino operators who have long called the island home in large part due to little regulation and no tax laws.
But now the island is facing a terrible economic crunch, and officials are considering taxing the industry to make up for shortfalls in the budget. Operators have said if such a tax goes through they will simply move to another jurisdiction that will be happy to have jobs created and be the next safe haven for online bookmakers.
According to a report from Reuters, Panama and Belize want the jobs and are offering free buildings, zero tax hassles and maybe even a break on telephone fees.
Odd Battle Brewing Over Name of Betting Firm
The company behind budget airline easyJet has threatened a high-profile Edinburgh bookmaker with legal action after he named his latest venture "easibet."
Henry Spurway announced plans to launch an online betting site at www.easibet.net after selling his successful chain of Larkspur betting shops.
But lawyers for easyGroup have written to him insisting he drops the name, claiming it would make customers think the gambling site was part of their company.
easyGroup includes the budget airline, a chain of Internet cafes and a credit card firm among a series of companies using the "easy" tag in their names.
Spurway has vowed to fight the corporate giant, saying he is fully prepared to take the battle to the courts.
Future of UK Betting Machines Remains in Doubt
The British Gaming Board is set to take Britain's bookmakers to court to challenge their right to offer customers access to lucrative electronic betting machines.
The board believes that the fixed-odds betting terminals, which offer a number of games, including roulette and bingo, should be reclassified as gaming machines and therefore subject to significant restrictions.
It will launch a test case, challenging the legality of the machines within the next two weeks. If the board is successful and the devices are reclassified as gaming machines it will severely slow one of the high-street bookmakers' fastest growing revenue streams. The machines have proved to be a highly popular and profitable innovation for high-street bookies. Hilton, owners of Ladbroke, said last month that over 1,000 have been installed in its shops with a further 1,000 planned by the first quarter of 2003.
Weekly turnover from them at Ladbroke is in excess of £11 million, which equates to annual profits of around £14 million and so far only 20 percent of its shops have them installed.
Site Deals with Attack at Bad Time
Not that a hack attack is ever good for business when you're an online casino or sports book, but just two weeks before the Super Bowl might be the worst time for a site to be compromised.
That's exactly what happened last week to Parlaycard.com, a betting site that specializes in parlay bets. As a result of an apparent attack, the site was unable to process credit cards during the middle of this week, and it's unclear whether the situation will be remedied in time for the NFL's conference championship games on Sunday. Parlaycard.com has posted a notice to users informing them that audits would be conducted to ensure that their credit card balances are correct before any more bets are accepted.
Barkley Holds No Punches Toward NFL
First the NFL said it wouldn't allow the Las Vegas Convention and Visitor's Bureau to advertise during the Super Bowl. Many thought the league was a little over the line, especially considering the ad wouldn't have mentioned gambling.
Now ex-basketball star Charles Barkley, one of the most outspoken personalities in sports, has weighed in with his thoughts. The retired forward had some sharp comments for the league on his talk show this week and made it known that he enjoys laying down a bet or two on a regular basis.
"The only thing football is good for is to bet on," Barkley said. He went on to say that he looks forward to calling his "guy" each week to place bets on the games.
English Footballers Prone to Gamble
Former Republic of Ireland striker Tony Cascarino claims that England players gambled thousands of pounds in a card school during the World Cup. Cascarino made the claim in the wake of weekend revelations by Chelsea frontman Eidur Gudjohnsen that he had lost up to £400,000 gambling in casinos.
Cascarino also claimed that one British player wrote out a check for £30,000 on the plane home after running up gambling debts during the tournament--a scenario, which if proved correct, could prompt an investigation by the Football Association.
"I know there was a big gambling school among the England team in the World Cup last summer," Cascarino said. "The players kept an account of who'd won and lost what through the tournament and on the flight back one of them, a big name, wrote out a check for £30,000.''
Access Brings Cote & Match Online
One of the more popular football betting options throughout Europe made its way to the Internet this month, thanks to gaming technology provider Access Gaming System.
The company just announced that Cote & Match football betting has debuted via the Internet in France and has been a huge success.
The draw game, which runs in parallel to the equivalent retail offering, enables players to bet on the results of upcoming football matches by marking the win, loss or draw fields alongside each fixture. Bets of between 1 euro and 100 euro are allowed on simple (3 to 6) or multiple (3 of 6, 4 of 6 etc.) match combinations.
Cote & Match is available to registered players alongside the 12 instant lotto games already running on the French platform.
The game was brought to the Internet through a partnership with La Française des Jeux, the Access's French licensee, and its technical subsidiary. LotSys.
Sports in Your Hand
A partnership between Phantomfiber and Covers.com means that professional and casual bettors will soon have access to real-time sports information via a handheld PC or PDA.
The two sides worked together in developing Covers Wireless, which is designed to deliver live odds, team match-up statistics, injury updates and news content to Pocket PC and Palm OS devices.
Covers.com is a leading sports betting portal delivering the latest odds and other sports betting news around the clock to punters everywhere. With the help of Phantomfiber, the service can now be delivered to wireless devices.
Phantomfiber’s Framework is designed from the ground up to marry compelling graphics with device-sensitive presentation capabilities. The companies said versions of the system should be ready for consumer use by the end of this month.